Service fees and the £1 booking fee

Guests can pay a service fee on top of the stay. It can be your own fee, PootlrHost’s £1 booking fee passed on to them, or both. Guests always see it as one “service fee”.

Both settings are under How guests pay on Payments (Payments & billing › Guest payments). Only the owner can change them.

Passing on the £1 booking fee

On Pay As You Go, PootlrHost charges £1 for each booking a guest makes online. Under Who pays the £1 booking fee?, choose:

• I’ll pay it: on card bookings it comes out of the guest’s payment before it reaches you; on pay-on-arrival bookings it goes on your card on the 1st of the next month. Guests see the stay price only.
• Guests pay it: guests pay £1 more on every booking, as a service fee, whether they pay by card or on arrival.

This saves as soon as you tap it. On Pro there’s no booking fee, so this choice doesn’t appear. Read more in Your PootlrHost plan.

When the £1 is charged

• Only on bookings guests make online. Bookings you add, imported bookings and bookings from other booking sites never carry it.
• Once the booking is confirmed, so a request you decline costs nothing.
• A group that books on your website costs £1 for each pitch.
• A pay-on-arrival booking that’s cancelled, or a no-show who paid nothing, costs nothing: the £1 comes off your bill, or is credited on the next one.
• When you refund a card payment, PootlrHost gives its £1 back in the same share.

Adding your own service fee

1. Under Add a service fee to each booking, choose Flat amount (from £0.50 to £25 a booking) or Percentage (from 0.5% to 10% of the stay, extras and tickets, after any discount).
2. Enter the amount.
3. Tick Add it to bookings I add too if you want it on bookings you take by phone, email or at the gate.
4. Tap Save service fee.

To stop charging it, choose None. Your amount is kept for next time. Your own fee is your money: it goes to your Stripe payout with the stay.

What guests see

The fee is shown next to every price before guests choose dates, for example “from £22 a night, plus a £3.50 service fee per booking”. Every total includes it, from the first one, and receipts list it as a service fee. It’s never added at the last step, as UK pricing law requires. It’s the same however guests pay, so you can’t call it a card fee.

How it’s paid

• Paying a deposit, the guest pays the whole service fee with it. The balance never takes it again.
• Paying on arrival, the guest pays it to you with the stay. PootlrHost’s £1 on those bookings goes on your card on the 1st of each month, so a passed-on £1 they pay you covers it.
• Refunds include the whole service fee, your own fee and a passed-on £1, in the same share as the stay. PootlrHost gives you its £1 back in the same share (see Refunds).

Good to know

• Bookings already made keep the fee they were made with. If you start passing the £1 on, you still pay it on bookings made before.
• Imported bookings and bookings from other booking sites never get a service fee.
• Stripe’s card fee always comes out of your payout. UK law doesn’t allow card surcharges, so there’s no way to pass it on.